It’s Spring! It’s my favorite time of year. I love Summer too, but Spring is like a huge prelude to it. I love the newness of it – everything is becoming alive and warmer. Unfortunately the mosquitoes and spiders also hatch around this time, but for this weather I can deal with them.
I bought a new (used) bike a few weeks ago and had it fixed up and tuned. It’s been so nice I’ve gone riding the past three days in a row for hour-long trips or more. I just love the warmth and the smells. The smells are so nice!
Along these lines, I sometimes like harvesting and cooking natural foods that grow outside. I’m really not a tree-hugger; I machete far more trees than I hug. Last Autumn I tried acorns, and this Spring it’s cattails. Known as the “supermarket of nature”, this humble, abundant plant is edible. You can eat almost the entire thing at one time or another throughout the year.
Several times last week I harvested a few cattail shoots – you can eat the part near the base. It’s kind of muddy picking them, so you have to find a good spot that isn’t too deep. Jill and I visited a few spots last week before finding a good one – behind our town’s fire department building! I asked permission of the man on duty if we could pick them, and he was totally not surprised. It turns out he grew up in Virginia or some other southern state where “they do that all the time”. So apparently it’s pretty common in other parts of the country?
Here’s a couple pictures of harvesting. If you’d like more details about this abundant natural food supply, I can point you in the right direction.
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